We began covering the skyrocketing oil prices last Friday with Lou Dobbs. He was candid. Saying because of the mild winter, there is plenty of oil and gas in the U.S.A. So supply and demand here should dictate lower prices.
But of course, they are not lower. They are much higher because the oil companies are shipping their products overseas. Measured in dollars, so oil products are now America's largest export worth $88 billion a year to the oil companies.
A decade ago, oil exports were not even among the top 25 exports. Most of the oil stayed here. And with working Americans getting hammered by stagnant wages and huge unemployment, this is yet another punishing situation for the folks.
Tomorrow President Obama will speak in Miami about gas prices. But he is likely to have no solutions. Listen to his spokesman Jay Carney today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY CARNEY: Oil and gas production in this country has been increasing. And even as it has been increasing, the price of oil has been going up globally. That tells you that there are factors that are not entirely within our control.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: However, if the Obama administration wanted to, it could ask Congress to raise export taxes on the oil companies to encourage them to sell their products here. Think about it. The oil companies are regulated by the federal government. They can't drill on land nor in American waters without permission from the feds. Many Republicans want to drill baby drill but what's the point if all the oil goes to China? Increased production obviously doesn't mean lower prices for us.
So the feds could exert some control if they wanted to. But they don't. Why? Well, Republicans generally don't want to inhibit the oil industry. And Democrats generally want high gas prices so folks switch to other modes of transportation and embrace alternative energy. This is part of the global warming deal.
But again, who gets hurt by all of the politics? You do.
The cartels overseas and the oil companies here set the prices based upon what they can get anywhere in the world. So right now we can expect oil prices to continue to go higher until the oil companies believe they are going to be held accountable. Then they will back off just a bit.
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